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Joshua 6

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1 Aga Jeeriko sulges oma väravad ja jäi suletuks Iisraeli laste pärast, ükski ei pääsenud välja ega sisse.

2 Siis Issand ütles Joosuale: 'Vaata, ma annan su kätte Jeeriko ja selle kuninga ning võitlusvõimelised sõjamehed, vaprad mehed.

3 Käige siis ümber linna, kõik sõjamehed, tehes ühe tiiru ümber linna; tee nõnda kuus päeva!

4 Ja seitse preestrit kandku seitset jäärasarve laeka ees! Seitsmendal päeval aga käige seitse korda ümber linna ja preestrid puhugu sarvi!

5 Ja kui sarve pikalt puhutakse, kui te kuulete sarve häält, siis tõstku kogu rahvas suurt sõjakisa; siis langeb linnamüür sealsamas ja rahvas mingu üles, igaüks otse oma kohalt!'

6 Siis kutsus Joosua, Nuuni poeg, preestrid ja ütles neile: 'Kandke seaduselaegast, ja seitse preestrit kandku seitset jäärasarve Issanda laeka ees!'

7 Aga rahvale ta ütles: 'Minge ja käige ümber linna, ja need, kes on relvastatud, käigu Issanda laeka ees!'

8 Ja sündis, nagu Joosua rahvale ütles. Need seitse preestrit, kes kandsid seitset jäärasarve Issanda ees, läksid ja puhusid sarvi, ja Issanda seaduselaegas käis nende järel.

9 Ja kes olid relvastatud, käisid sarvi puhuvate preestrite ees, aga laeka järel käis järelvägi, ja sarvi puhuti lakkamatult.

10 Ja Joosua andis rahvale käsu, öeldes: 'Ärge karjuge ja ärge tehke häält, ärgu tulgu teie suust sõnagi kuni selle päevani, millal ma teile ütlen: Karjuge! Siis karjuge!'

11 Ja ta laskis Issanda laeka käia ümber linna, ühe korra ringi; siis nad tulid leeri ja jäid ööseks leeri.

12 Ja Joosua tõusis hommikul vara ning preestrid tõstsid üles Issanda laeka.

13 Ja need seitse preestrit, kes kandsid seitset jäärasarve Issanda laeka ees, läksid aina ja puhusid sarvi, ja kes olid relvastatud, käisid nende ees, ja Issanda laeka järel käis järelvägi, ja sarvi puhuti lakkamatult.

14 Nad käisid ka teisel päeval ühe korra ümber linna ja tulid tagasi leeri; nõnda tegid nad kuus päeva.

15 Aga seitsmendal päeval tõusid nad vara koiduajal ja käisid selsamal kombel seitse korda ümber linna; üksnes sel päeval käisid nad seitse korda ümber linna.

16 Ja kui seitsmendal korral preestrid puhusid sarvi, ütles Joosua rahvale: 'Karjuge, sest Issand annab linna teile!

17 Linn ja kõik, mis selles on, tuleb hävitada Issanda auks! Ainult hoor Raahab jäägu ellu, tema ja kõik, kes on koos temaga ta kojas, sest tema peitis meie läkitatud käskjalgu!

18 Aga teie ise hoiduge hävitatavast eemale, et te himustades ei võtaks midagi hävitatavast ega viiks Iisraeli leeri vande alla ega tõukaks õnnetusse!

19 Kõik hõbe ja kuld, vask- ja raudriistad on aga pühitsetud Issandale ja need tulgu Issanda varanduste hulka!'

20 Siis rahvas hakkas karjuma ja puhuti sarvi. Ja sündis, kui rahvas kuulis sarvehäält ja rahvas hakkas karjuma suure sõjakisaga, et müür varises oma jala pealt ja rahvas läks üles linna, igaüks otse oma kohalt, ja nad vallutasid linna.

21 Ja nad hävitasid mõõgateraga sootuks kõik, kes linnas olid, niihästi mehed kui naised, niihästi noored kui vanad, samuti härjad, lambad ja eeslid.

22 Aga neile kahele mehele, kes olid maad kuulanud, ütles Joosua: 'Minge hooranaise kotta ja tooge sealt välja naine ja kõik, kes tal on, nagu te temale olete vandega tõotanud!'

23 Siis läksid need noored mehed, maakuulajad, ja tõid välja Raahabi, tema isa, ema, vennad ja kõik, kes tal olid; nad tõid välja kogu tema suguvõsa ja jätsid need väljapoole Iisraeli leeri.

24 Ja nad põletasid tulega ära linna ja kõik, mis seal sees oli; ainult hõbeda ja kulla, vask- ja raudriistad panid nad Issanda koja varanduste hulka.

25 Aga hoor Raahabi ja tema isa pere ja kõik, kes tal olid, jättis Joosua ellu, ja ta elab Iisraeli keskel tänapäevani, sellepärast et ta peitis käskjalgu, keda Joosua oli läkitanud Jeerikot uurima.

26 Sel ajal vandus Joosua vande, öeldes: 'Neetud olgu Issanda ees mees, kes asub üles ehitama seda Jeeriko linna! Oma esmasündinu hinnaga rajab ta selle ja oma noorima hinnaga paneb ta sellele väravad ette.'

27 Ja Issand oli Joosuaga, kes sai kuulsaks kogu maal.

   

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Exploring the Meaning of Joshua 6

Napsal(a) New Christian Bible Study Staff, Julian Duckworth

Joshua 6: The Fall of Jericho

Here, the first conflict for Israel in Canaan presents itself: the taking of the city of Jericho, which stands directly and obstinately in the path of the Israelites, preventing them from moving forward. This conflict embodies the whole essence and scope of all the rest of the conquests in the Joshua story, which in the inner meaning is to overcome and rule the things in our lives which oppose what God wants for us.

Jericho is to be taken with a siege, and God gives Joshua a procedure to follow: You shall march round the city once a day for six days in absolute silence. Seven priests shall carry seven rams’ horns before the ark. On the seventh day you shall march round the city seven times, and then the priests shall blow their trumpets. All the people are to shout with a huge shout, and then the walls of the city will fall down flat. And all the people are to go up and take the city.

This is quite unlike any other siege, where walls have to be scaled and fire catapulted in to burn things, but... this is a spiritual siege. The siege of Jericho represents how we are to lay siege to, or deal effectively with, our own evils and tendencies. It is the description blueprint for the battle between good and evil, which is our battle too. (See Doctrine of Faith 50).

In the Bible, Jericho is sometimes called the ‘city of palm trees’, giving a lovely idea of it. Its name means “a place of fragrance”, or, “his (the Lord’s) sweet breath”. It sounds perfect, but this has been usurped by invaders and takers who are now in complete possession of this sweet city and who will hold on for all they're worth (Apocalypse Explained 502[11]). This is really an account of the influence of hell in human life, and especially our unregenerate lives, when we are open to whatever feels self-gratifying.

Jericho, we hear, is shut up tight. It is not going to be an easy matter – because the work of regeneration never is – but this also describes hell’s fear; it is shut up tight because of the Israelites (Heaven and Hell 543). In us, when we become aware of a better way to live and we want to follow the Lord - whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light - hell will soon hit back in some devious imperceptible way to hold on to what it has got. It is scared of losing us.

This takes us to the siege and its tactics. The march once a day around the city for six days, carrying the ark, is to see every part of our situation from every angle, and it is also to parade our worship and adoration of the Lord (by parading the ark). The time period, six days, is always to do with the work involved in our regeneration as we see evil and shun it, pray to God, stand back and determine. (Arcana Caelestia 10373)

The seventh day involves seven marches round the city, then the trumpets and the shouts. This is the culmination, the Sabbath. For us, it is the avowal that we know the Lord is now ruling our will and our life and there will be no turning back or weakness of giving in. Jericho is now taken! The command is that every living thing in the city is to be completely destroyed because we must be unrelenting against all the things in our lives that go against God.

The gold, the silver, and the vessels of brass and iron, were put into the treasury of the house of Jehovah. The "gold and silver" represent the knowledges of spiritual truth and good, and "the vessels of brass and iron" represent knowledges of natural truth and good. In the profane hands of the idolaters of Jericho, those knowledges could be tools to serve dire falsities and evils. In the house of Jehovah, they could be serviceable knowledges, applied to good ends - hence their being salvaged. (See Heaven and Hell 487)

The prostitute Rahab (who had hidden Israel’s spies and confessed the Lord’s power) and all her family are brought out and given safekeeping. For us, this is the acknowledgement of the truth that we are sinful (as she was) and that if it were not for the Lord we would plunge into who knows what. But now we know and confess the power and truth of God. And then, the Israelites burn the city with fire and Joshua pronounces a curse on anyone who ever rebuilds this city. We are to abhor evil for what it is and be faithful to the Lord our God.

The story of the destruction of Jericho is then the pattern for all our resistance and resolve in seeing and overcoming evil, while confessing, as we do this, that the battle is the Lord’s. (Charity 166)

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Heaven and Hell # 543

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543. I need to explain briefly how the hells are governed, though. Overall, the hells are governed by a general impingement of divine good and divine truth from the heavens through which the general effort that flows out of the hells is restrained and controlled. There is also a specific impingement from each heaven and from each community of heaven.

Specifically, the hells are governed by means of angels who are given the ability to look into the hells and check the insanities and riots there. Sometimes angels are sent there, and their very presence brings matters under control.

In general, though, all the people in the hells are governed by their fears, some by fears sown and still in place from the world. However, since these fears are not adequate and gradually weaken, they are governed through fears of punishment, which are the primary means of preventing them from doing evil. There are many kinds of punishment there, milder or more severe depending on the evil [they are restraining]. Most of the time, the relatively malevolent spirits are in power, having gained control by their experience and skill; and they are able to keep the rest in servile obedience by punishments and the fears that these give birth to. These dominant spirits do not dare go beyond fixed limits.

We do need to realize that the only way of controlling the violent rages of people in the hells is through fear of punishment. There are no other means.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for the permission to use this translation.